One of the most gifted United young midfielders since
Paul Scholes, Morrison dropped from the Premier League to the
Championship and passed from the care of Sir Alex Ferguson to Sam
Allardyce, the West Ham manager: a mentor to some of the game’s
more awkward and unusual characters.
Morrison passed his medical on Tuesday after an initial reported
fee of £650,000 rising to £1million had been agreed with United.
Newcastle United was his other possible refuge but for once he is
thinking several steps ahead. Sources close to the deal say
Morrison is desperate to play regularly to help keep him out of
trouble – and believes he can achieve a regular starting place in a
side who are hot favourites for promotion.
Either way, Morrison’s rejection by Manchester United is a rare setback for a
club who have framed their identity around guiding the best boys
from the training fields of Carrington to the turf of Old
Trafford.
But Morrison is not like Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville or Scholes.
Witness intimidation and a dispute with his girlfriend that ended
with her mobile phone being thrown through a window are on his
police file and magistrates have warned him he will go to jail if
he offends again.
Away from the courts Morrison was frequently AWOL for training
and used Twitter to express disdain for a club awards dinner and
anger at what he saw as his lack of first-team opportunities.
Ferguson’s coaches gave up on him: a rare acceptance of defeat at a
club where youth cultivation is a religion.
Morrison scored twice in the 2011 FA Youth Cup win over
Sheffield United and dazzled observers with his poise and skill.
Two days later he was being fined £600 for throwing his
girlfriend’s phone. At 15 he scored in an FA Youth Cup tie against
Chelsea and made his first-team debut in 2010 in the Carling Cup
against Wolves.
But his disciplinary lapses blocked his path and now Allardyce
has invited him to settle in a stable team coasting towards
promotion. He said: “Ravel is a talented lad and if he really wants
to be a player then we will help him as much as we can along the
way. Perhaps a change of environment will be beneficial to him and
help him make that step up to first-team football quicker than
perhaps would have been the case at Manchester United. There is no
doubt he has exceptional talent.”
West Ham have always cleared space for free spirits and
mavericks. Ian Bishop and Paolo Di Canio are just two examples of
Upton Park idols who tended towards nonconformity.
Allardyce is a mostly functional coach who likes to roll a dice
around the margins. He added Jay-Jay Okocha to a long-ball Bolton
team and took Joey Barton to Newcastle. At West Ham he has
dismissed the old conceit of losing prettily in favour of a more
muscular and calculating approach. Over the summer — before
Morrison and Ricardo Vaz Te entered his thoughts — Allardyce
recruited the likes of Abdoulaye Faye, Kevin Nolan, Papa Bouba Diop
and John Carew.
This romance-kicking pragmatism has propelled West Ham to the
top of the Championship and the acquisition of Morrison is a cheap
investment in the kind of midfield artistry the Hammers will need
if they come back up in May. The initial risk runs to £650,000 and
£10-£15,000 a week in wages. There is little danger of Morrison
upsetting the promotion push. If he returned to his old ways the
senior pros would merely ostracise him and plough on with their
jobs.
Seldom do United’s educational and coaching programmes run into
such insurmountable obstacles. Boys from deprived or troubled
backgrounds are often transformed at Carrington. Many move
successfully to lower league clubs.
The FA Youth Cup-winning player is especially valued. Matt
Busby’s babes won the competition five times and Ferguson’s class
of ’92 was the launch pad for David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Gary
Neville and Giggs. Scholes and Phil Neville were also of that
generation.
Morrison leaves behind Will Keane, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Paul
Pogba, team-mates from last year’s victory over Sheffield’s Blades.
The idea is that playing regularly will be his salvation while the
move to London liberates him from the bad influences of his
youth.
There will be no entourage heading south, his aides say: just a
teenager with a nose for trouble and the kind of fluent,
instinctive skills United have built a tradition around. Big Sam
Allardyce loves a test. He will want the good angels on his
side.
